<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>arsenic and old lace (that i threw away to save your life) by PulsarNyx</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28306575">arsenic and old lace (that i threw away to save your life)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/PulsarNyx/pseuds/PulsarNyx'>PulsarNyx</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sleepless Domain (Webcomic)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>"I Know You're In There Somewhere" Fight, (technically?), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Consensual Possession, Dark Magic, Extremely Dubious Consent, F/F, Gaslighting, Gen, Romantic Fluff, Suicidal Thoughts, Theorizing about an Unfinished Webcomic, Warlock Pacts, hopefully?, tessa is a warlock of goops</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:06:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>560</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28306575</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/PulsarNyx/pseuds/PulsarNyx</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>blaming herself for the deaths of her teammates, tessa quinn accepts a pact with goops to regain her powers and hopefully protect the people she loves (like she used to), becoming the dark magical girl alchemical arsenic. surely the dark entity that directs the monsters to kill more magical girls and who personally destroyed her team would be happy freely giving her magic, no strings attached, right?</p><p>yeah, no.</p><p>undine may have stopped the magical girl power training club from ripping itself apart under the strain of her greatest secret, gaining useful allies in the fight against the purple entity in the process, but now she must face her greatest challenge left - a race against the clock to stop one of the most powerful magical girls of all time (and her oldest friend) from destroying the city and herself in the process.  </p><p>based on twitter user / tumblr user krekalie's concept of tessa's dark mahou form.<br/>https://twitter.com/krekalie/status/1309807569192378371<br/>https://twitter.com/krekalie/status/1309808595110785024</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kokoro | Heartful Punch/Undine Wells | Alchemical Water, Tessa Quinn | Alchemical Aether &amp; Undine Wells | Alchemical Water, Zoe Blecher &amp; Kokoro | Heartful Punch &amp; Undine Wells | Alchemical Water</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>arsenic and old lace (that i threw away to save your life)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>tessa strikes a deal with the devil. the clock begins to wind down.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>the timeline:<br/>- first chapter takes place on the night of interlude 16, when tessa first speaks to goops.<br/>- the gang is aware of goops and are taking steps to track her down and figure her out. they know cassidy is dead.<br/>- team thrash and vedika are on lookout duty - any mentions of a girl made of shadows are catalogued and investigated in real time.<br/>- zoe is currently roping rue into their plans to take down the purple one.<br/>- gabby is out of the loop, mostly.<br/>- rue and tessa are mostly ignoring each other post-fight. rue is worried about tessa, but isn't going to go out of her way to help her until she *knows* something is up.<br/>- will is trying to help tessa, but she keeps coming up with excuses to keep him at arm's length. he's worried, but also respects her feelings and is trying his best to help from a distance.<br/>- undine is now carrying the guilt of four dead magical girls on her conscience. expect dramatic breakdown and semi-romantic cuddles at some point.</p><p>the stage is set. let's rock and roll.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I want to be strong."</p><p><strong>She</strong> grinned a wide grin, only her best and brightest for <strong>her</strong> newest poppet.</p><p>
  <strong>GOOD.</strong>
</p><p>The poppet was perfect, really - so full of self-loathing and anger, abandoned by her city, her goddess, her blue-haired friend. Not to mention her magical potential - even if she'd burnt out all her power saving that meddlesome brat, <strong>she</strong> could fill the void of her soul with something new, something grand. It had been only the work of a single night to convince the girl to accept the pact and become her vessel.</p><p>The poppet looked hard at <strong>her</strong>, and she felt something akin to a shiver go down her spine, not that she would ever admit to being scared.</p><p>"You have to promise me you'll give me the power to <em>protect</em> the people I love, not some curse that kills everyone around me or something. I won't do this otherwise."</p><p><strong>She</strong> grinned even wider at that. These children could be so stupid at times.</p><p>
  <strong>OF COURSE. IN RETURN FOR THIS MAGIC, YOU WILL AID ME WHERE AND WHEN YOU CAN. DO WE HAVE AN AGREEMENT, TESSA QUINN?</strong>
</p><p>Her poppet hesitated.</p><p>"H-how do I know I can trust you? If you can give people magic, why not someone else?"</p><p><strong>She</strong> chuckled. They made it almost too easy at times.</p><p>
  <strong>BECAUSE I SEE SOMETHING SPECIAL IN YOU, TESSA QUINN. I SEE SOMETHING NOBODY ELSE CAN - YOUR POTENTIAL. YOUR INNER STRENGTH. AND I WISH TO DRAW IT OUT.</strong>
</p><p>The key, of course, was to isolate her. Cut her off from anyone who might <em>save</em> her. Make sure that <strong>she</strong> was the only support her poppet had. Break away at her confidence and make her afraid of the consequences of failure.</p><p>Her poppet swallowed, before reaching out her hand.</p><p>"We have a deal."</p><p><strong>She</strong> laughed and shook, her inky black arm flowing over and around the outstretched arm like water as she leaned forward, her form already slipping into the girl's soul. To her poppet's credit, the idiot girl didn't even flinch. <strong>She</strong> had to work quickly before the barrier dissolved, and with it, her protection.</p><p>
  <strong>HOLD STILL.</strong>
</p><p><strong>She</strong> reached into the girl's soul and <em>twisted</em>, wrenching a hole where the damned light used to be and forcing it open. She felt her poppet twitch slightly, a pained cry quickly muffled by a hand in the mouth. Her needle-like fingers wove through the warped mass of the soul, stitching together skeins of ethereal matter into something that could house the magic inside it. She pulled the core out from her shadows then - a spherical mass of stone, run through with thick veins of silver, leaking deep fog that smelled almost acrid. It fit perfectly into the recess of her poppet's soul.</p><p>Outside, the intercom crackled to life.</p><p>"The time is now two A.M. The Inner Barrier will deactivate shortly. Please make sure the streets are clear of monsters, and take care on your way home."</p><p><strong>She </strong>slid out of her poppet's spirit, admiring her work. Her poppet looked no different outwardly, but her scarred sigil began to glow a faint grey, cut through lines of acidic green that shifted and writhed.</p><p>
  <strong>RIGHT ON SCHEDULE. I'LL SEE YOU LATER.</strong>
</p><p><strong>She</strong> slipped out the window into the night, slipping back into shadows from where she came.</p><p>Now, all she had to do was wait.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>alchemical arsenic's powerset:<br/>- hidden curse (passive): tessa's untransformed appearance is unchanged, allowing her to hide her actions and magical nature. however, she also begins suffering from the effects of her own poisons - her skin slowly greys and takes on a stone-like texture. unless this curse is removed, she will die in exactly seven days from arsenic poisoning.<br/>- toxic mist (passive): tessa constantly exudes an arsenic-laced fog from her pores that spreads along the ground. the production of fog can be increased to a degree where tessa is completely obscured within it, or decreased to a point where it is barely noticeable, though it can never be completely disabled. the fog is opaque, odorless, water-based, and dissipates harmlessly after an hour.<br/>- crystal shards (active): the crystalline growths around tessa's wrists and ankles can be launched at high speeds as projectile weapons. the shards exude a magical poison that causes shortness of breath, localized pain, vomiting, and staining of the skin grey. embedded shards are difficult to remove from the outside due to their slick surface and sharp edges.<br/>- petrification (active): with a touch, tessa can slowly turn her victims to stone. petrification can be reversed via immersion in water, though full petrification takes quite some time to revert.<br/>- possession (hidden): tessa's particular mindset and magic make her a perfect vessel for goops to possess. should tessa ever falter in her duties as alchemical arsenic, goops will possess her body, dramatically accelerating the effects of [hidden curse] and turning her eyes deep purple.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>